Two years on from the 2022 US midterm elections, TikTok continues to serve as a platform candidates use to try to reach voters. According to a new report from the Technology Program and the Alliance for Securing Democracy at the German Marshall Fund (GMF), 27% of candidates in Senate, House, gubernatorial, and secretary of state races have TikTok accounts—up from 23% of candidates who used the platform in the 2022 midterm elections. As candidates continue to experiment with the app, national security risks remain.

Lindsay Gorman, Managing Director and Senior Fellow at the GMF Technology Program and a former White House advisor, Caitlin Goldenberg, and Isabella Nieminen tracked and catalogued 257 TikTok accounts created and used by US major party candidates in Senate, House, governor, and secretary of state races this November. They found:

  • Senate candidates are more likely to use TikTok than are candidates for the House of Representatives. About 43% of Senate candidates have accounts, compared to about 25% of House candidates—a finding largely consistent with 2022. House candidates, however, get more engagement.
  • Democrats are still more likely than Republicans to have accounts (38% of Democrats and only 16% of Republicans had TikTok accounts). This finding is consistent with GMF’s 2022 report.
  • TikTok has verified just 13% of candidate accounts, an even lower percentage than in 2022. Even among the 68 candidates who explicitly link out to their TikTok profiles on official campaign websites, TikTok has verified only four.
  • Over a quarter of swing state candidates running in this year’s elections have a TikTok account. Many of these candidates use their TikTok accounts to comment on issues and speak to demographics that may influence whether their state swings red or blue.

Since the 2022 midterm elections—when US candidates began using TikTok in earnest to experiment with political outreach—a tepid “Washington consensus” on the national security risks around TikTok has emerged. This consensus has culminated in new legislation to force ByteDance’s divestiture from TikTok or ban the app on US devices. Yet, as the case against TikTok gets prosecuted in the courts, political candidates continue to use the app to reach voters, Lindsay, Caitlin, and Isabella write.

Read “TikTok Tactics: 2024 US Candidates Dance Around Security Risks” here.

Reporters can contact Angelina Sutalo at asutalo@gmfus.org to request an interview.

The views expressed in GMF publications and commentary are the views of the author alone.